Graphical Visualisation of Conversation for AAC

—

Yulong Sun

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a field that seeks to develop systems that assist and enhance the communication abilities of those whose disabilities impair communication. The non-speaking people who relay on AAC devices to complete everyday conversations often run into problems due to the awkwardness of the interface and the impatience of the communication partner. As the size of stored information corpus in the ACC system increase, it can be very hard for the ACC users, especially those who are unfamiliar with communication skills, to find the right dialog they need. An aim of this project is to reduce the load on the AAC system user so that they can concentrate mainly on thinking about what to say rather than on how to work the system. Using graphical visualisation is an appropriate way to make information access easier for the AAC users. Presenting the conversation in a graphical interface and making the interface users picking the graphical symbol rather than searching in the ocean of text information can help to guide non-speaking person through the conversation and participate better in it. There are two prototypes of such interface came out after the first semester’s research: the map-type model and the 3D fish-motion model. The model chosen for the project is the 3D fish-motion model. 3D fish-motion model is based on cartoon fish graphic visualisation which is a very lovely and fantasy way to visualize the conversation for AAC users